


Man In Blue

by dreameh



Series: Peter Parker's Stark Tower Adventures [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: (only to Bucky), Bucky Barnes Is a Good Bro, Dorito Steve Rogers, Gen, Identity Reveal, Peter is a Little Shit, Protective Peter Parker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-26 02:18:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18273788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreameh/pseuds/dreameh
Summary: Peter holds grudges for people he loves, he can't help himself.Bucky wants Peter to just talk to his childhood best friend.Steve is only a little sad that Peter is avoiding him.Tony is lost because how the fuck does his kid know what happened in Siberia.





	Man In Blue

**Author's Note:**

> I can't believe that dorito steve rogers is a tag (actually I can,,)

To say that Peter was avoiding Steve was, well... it’s not like it wasn’t the truth. After he snapped at the super soldier and punched him the first time he met him, he was trying his best to not be in the same room as him. He would ask FRIDAY where he was located if he wanted to go somewhere in the tower, only moving around if he knew Steve wasn’t going to be anywhere near where he wanted to go. Bucky, who had started venturing out of his room more often with Peter after opening up to him, wanted the boy he saw as a really supportive younger brother to face his idiotic age old best friend (and longtime crush) and for once maybe talk to him and just get the awkward tension over for once and for all.

 

 

 

Peter's anger towards the first super soldier first began dying down (albeit very slowly) after Bucky started telling him stories about what the two of them got up to in the past. Personal story time between the two always occurred when they were snuggling close to each other on the bed in Bucky's actual room which, thankfully, he decided to move back in to. He had decided that trusted what Peter said about everyone being safe if something happened to trigger him while in his room (he really didn't like the reinforced room anyway, even though he was the one who made the choice to be stay in there).

Whenever Peter would accidentally cross paths with Steve, he would make a face of panic and immediately push past him and speed off to where he was going, or go somewhere else completely and hide. He didn’t often notice the hurt looks on Steve’s face whenever that happened until the one time he did.

Peter was spending time in the training room, getting out his frustrations through the training regime he and Tony had created for him, which usually involved the Iron Spider suit encasing him and dragging him away because sometimes he got too carried away and would break things. Thankfully, he didn’t get to that point during this particular session and ended it laying down on the floor, breathing semi-heavily. He heard the elevator doors sliding open and immediately tensed, standing up, not sure who was going to be there and how they’d react to him being in a training room.

Typical of his luck, Steve was the one who walked through the door, so he hurriedly tried to clean up the slight mess he had created in order to not have to deal with the potential confrontation. As he collected his water bottle and sweater, Steve called out, “Peter, kid. I need to talk to you.” Peter froze, mortified. He shook his head at a rapid pace, “No, no I can’t talk, I don’t want to talk. Not now.” And as he went to manoeuvre past Steve, he looked up for long enough to notice the crestfallen and slightly hurt look on the man’s face and immediately after his heart clenched with guilt.

Rather than going straight up to his room to shower and possibly become a hermit for the rest of his life, he went to Bucky’s bedroom and threw his sweater on the bed before collapsing face first on top of it. “I want die.” He complained in a muffled voice and Peter heard the very faint creak of the couch as Bucky moved out of his sitting position on the it and walked over to run a hand through Peter’s curls.

“I feel so bad now that I yelled at Mr Rogers and like he wants to talk to me but I freak out every time he gets near me but maybe that’s just the anxiety from both what he did and I did catching back up to me? I don’t know I’m just really stressed about this because like I’m still mad about what happened with Tony because I saw the footage of him beating him black and blue but at the same time, I can see that he’s making an effort to do better because Tony doesn’t have panic attacks when he gets too close anymore but is it bad that I always grudges for people I care about?”

Bucky’s hand stilled and everything was silent for a moment, but then he continued to play with Peter’s hair. “Honestly Pete, holding grudges for people you care about... it is okay to do that but you need to not let that rule over your life. Have a thorough talk with Tony about it and ask him whether he’d be willing to mostly forgive Steve - because you can’t expect anyone to fully forgive him for something like that so soon. Honestly, I wouldn’t either. I told him what happened to Tony’s parents trusting that he’d tell him. He’s my best friend but technically he broke my trust too. If Tony says that he is fine with forgiving Steve then don’t be afraid to forgive him too because one day one of you could get hurt because of the grudge. Plus, I doubt he hasn’t already forgiven you for punching him.”

Peter smiled softly into his sweater, still feeling some satisfaction from the punch among the guilt that he was struggling with, Bucky continued. “And I know you won’t really like hearing this, but you are so unbelievably similar to Steve. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if you jumped into some sort of situation on the daily that has the potential to get you killed.” When Peter didn’t reply or even laugh at his ‘joke’, Bucky froze. “Pete, please don’t say what I think you’re about to say.” His voice was almost pleading. Peter laughed awkwardly, saying, “About that...” Bucky groaned and put his face against Peter’s back. “You can’t tell anyone. I’m sure it’ll get out eventually, but I’m Spider-Man.”

“You’re Spider-Man? Peter, what the fuck? I tried to punch you with my metal arm! I threw an airport sign at you! Did Tony force you to fight?" Peter shook his head, face otherwise still planted firmly onto the bed. "No! It's not like that! Mr Stark asked me for help and gave me a proper suit as compensation because he knew he wouldn't be able to stop me from being Spider-Man so he decided to give me more protection, he didn't want a 15 year old being killed when he had the chance to make superheroing a bit more safe for me.

"But, I didn't get hit by the punch or the sign and I threw the sign back at you. And also Steve collapsed one of those airport plane boarding thingies on me and then a few months later guy in an alien tech wing suit collapsed a building on me while I was wearing my old suit which had no protection, so I can confidently say I've had worse than what you tried to do to me. Also, don't tell Mr Stark about the building, I haven't told him yet!"

"I reiterate my point, what the fuck Peter?" Said boy giggled a little and sat up, finally looking at the super soldier who looked extremely concerned. "I honestly don't know anymore. My life is messed up but at least I have good family figures to keep me sane and help me feel safe. Well, thank you for your time and advice Bucky, I'm going to go up to my room and shower before I go to the lab with Mr Stark." He picked up his sweater, drink bottle still in hand, and walked to the elevator.

 

* * *

 

"So. Mr Stark. I was talking with Bucky-"

"Underoos, why do you call him Bucky already but still call me Mr Stark?"

"-because your reaction to it is funny let me live. Anyway, I was talking to him about Mr Rogers." Peter noticed when Tony tensed. It was very slight, but Peter still noticed it. “And how I don’t want to forgive him for what he did to you until you are willing to forgive him.“ Tony’s eyes softened at the words and he shook his head, "Pete, you shouldn't be doing that for me. Don't be mad at him because I'm mad at him."

"No, Mr Stark, I'm not mad at him because you are, I'm mad at him because of what he did to you! How could he just leave you there? I hold grudges for people I care about and I won't be completely forgiving him until it's a long time after you forgive him." Tony ruffled Peter's hair, looking a little distressed at his words.

"Okay well firstly, what the fuck Pete what do you mean what he did to me? How did you know he left me in Siberia?" Peter became overwhelmed as he thought of what he witnessed and Tony froze momentarily as the boy started crying before rushing forward to comfort him as best as he could (aka, very awkwardly), "We just... I wanted to know what happened to leave you hurting so much so we... hacked into Mark 46. We saw everything until FRIDAY cut it off because we were actually crying.”

“Pete, who exactly is ‘we’?”

“Me and my guy in the chair, the guy who hacked into the Spider-Man suit and turned off training wheels while I removed the tracker.”

“Turned off training wheels- Peter I’m not going to kill him, I just want to know, I’m impressed.”

“Ned.”

“Ned Leeds?” A weak nod was the only response. “Well Pete, you can tell him that I’m impressed and I’ll offer him his own internship when he comes here next.” Peter, who was ready to tell Tony that he’d forced Ned to hack into the suit, just blinked rapidly, jaw dropped in shock at Tony’s words. “Isn’t that hilarious, Stark Industries, a company that doesn’t take interns until they’re in college taking not one but two genius high school interns because a spider-baby imprinted on him like a baby duckling.”

Peter narrowed his eyes at the spider-baby part of the remark but couldn’t help but smile regardless because he could hear the underlying compliment in Tony’s words. “I can message him about this, right? Or should I keep this a secret and bring him around next week and surprise him? Ooh surprising him sounds good... if I can keep it to myself for that long...” Peter pouted momentarily as if he had forgotten that he was horrible at lying. “Would you mind me bringing him around next week?”

The look he got in response was answer enough and he rushed to send his best friend a message about asking for permission to stay over on Friday (Ned knew that Friday was a tower day and May, bless her, was ever so willing to make it seem like they were at her apartment if one of his mothers ever called her, so Peter reminded himself that he needed to message her about it too). Without either of them realising it, the topic of Steve Rogers was completely evaded as they instead began to plan Peter’s introduction to the Stark Industries tower staff as an official intern.

 

* * *

 

Later that night after Peter returned from his patrol (It was more... very, very early morning, Peter realised with dismay as he noticed the time was 2:30am) and felt the urge to eat something. Knowing not to underestimate his hunger because of his metabolism, he quickly changed into his pyjamas and walked out, sitting down at the top of the staircase and waiting for FRIDAY to activate the mechanism that turned the stairs into a slide. “Peter, you’re back late.” The AI’s voice greeted him as he slid down the slide and made his way to the kitchen.

“I got... caught up stopping some robberies and then I was helping people get out of an apartment building that was on fire. I couldn’t do nothing.” He told her. She remained silent for a moment as he scoured around for something to eat. “While that is honourable, Boss didn’t fire-proof your suit just so you could save people from house fires. He will find out about this and how long you stayed out tonight and you will probably have a curfew set.” Peter, who had a mouth full of Doritos (he was craving the chips even though there was plenty of food), spluttered at FRIDAY’s assumption and his jaw dropped before he coughed, almost choking on the Doritos.

He sat on the bench as he ate and looked up at the camera, knowing that FRIDAY’s attention was currently on him “If Mr Stark is to find out can you not be the one who tells him, please FRI?” He asked and FRIDAY let out a sigh, her response causing Peter to laugh a little. “Peter, it’s shameful how I go against Boss’s rules regarding you because of you.”

“It’s because you looove me.” He teased and she sighed again, sounding almost regretful when she responded “Unfortunately, yes, it is because I favour you over most people.” and the only way Peter could react to that was to yelp in dismay at the ‘unfortunately’ part of the response and then huff at the AI’s sass. Rather than another quip from FRIDAY, Peter next heard the doors of the elevator opening and a very late “Mr Rogers has arrived in the commons area.” and Peter rolled his eyes at the timing.

He moved to get off the bench and return to his room (contemplating whether bringing the bag of Doritos up with him would be worth the scolding he’d probably get for being up at close to 3am and eating chips of all things), but before he could do anything, Steve moved to grab his arm and his spidey sense was bothering him about it because until he knew he could trust Steve, his sense would consider him a threat after what he did in Leipzig.

Even though all that he wanted to do was jump onto the roof and abscond the fuck out of the room, Peter only edged out of Steve’s reach uneasily. “Okay, no touching.” He muttered under his breath, “Peter, please just let me talk.” When Peter didn’t make any movements that made it seem like he was going to run off, only getting some more Doritos out of the bag and eating them quietly, Steve continued to talk.

“Okay, yes, I will admit that my motives of wanting to protect Bucky at the expense of others were messed up. You made a point about the amendments that could be made to the accords that I never thought of, though I assure you it’s simply because I never really knew much about politics so I had no idea how the Accords would work.” Peter’s eyes narrowed because he had not yet said anything about anything else yet.

“What about Leipzig and how your selfishness almost got Mr Rhodey killed and instead left him paralysed? You do know that because of Leipzig you should technically be a terrorist, yet Mr Stark faced sleepless nights trying to make up excuses for you. What about Siberia? What about how you beat Mr Stark black and blue after he found out that you knew how his parents were killed? And don’t think of lying about it because I know everything that happened.”

Steve sighed, the information he was just told shocked him a little and the questions that were just asked could take a long time to answer honestly. “I... I know I’m selfish, I always have been, that’s one of the reasons I agreed to becoming a super soldier, I was selfish because I wanted to fight, I didn’t want to be weak and unable to fight for my country anymore. I wanted to be more like Bucky, brave, popular, strong, charismatic... taller... everything I wasn’t. All I was, was loyal to my country and riddled with health issues.

“Rhodey... I didn’t want for that to happen to him and I know that the entire Leipzig thing was my fault. I refused to acknowledge that the countries who wanted the accords only wanted accountability for damage caused to infrastructure and the loss of lives during our missions because all I saw was Ross trying to cage us like animals and people trying to kill Bucky and then making him the scapegoat for Vienna without thinking of what may be the truth. I... appreciate... everything that Tony has done for us to be at least... partially pardoned...”

He sighed and rubbed his face before continuing. “When I found out what happened to Howard and Maria, I had every intention of telling Tony, that was before I found out that Bucky was still alive and I figured that because Hydra are sick people, they probably would’ve had Bucky murder the Starks, knowing that he knew them. After the first time I retained that knowledge from him, the time that I knew would have been the best time to tell him, I chickened out. Then the timing got worse and worse until the day in Siberia when he actually found out about it. I know you said that Tony wasn’t trying to kill Bucky and I can see that now, but at the time I wasn’t thinking straight and I didn’t realise that he wasn’t trying to kill him which is why I fought back.”

He hesitated with the last part of Peter’s question, so Peter pushed a little further “Okay yes you were being dumb and only wanted him to not kill Bucky so you fought back yadda yadda but I want to know why. Why did you beat him until he couldn’t move, to the point where he could have died had T’Challa not been there?” His voice took on a cold tone. Steve shivered a little bit at the dark look in the usually cheerful boy’s eyes.

“I really don’t know the reason why I let myself put that much strength into the fight and let it end that way. I really don’t, Peter. Maybe I was scared because for so damn long I was the role-model everyone looked up to, I was powerful with my leadership and the serum but suddenly I wasn’t and then in Siberia when it was obvious Bucky and I were overpowering him, suddenly Tony was above me, fighting back and overcoming the strength differences. Maybe I was afraid because of how much power Tony has with his suit, I know that if he was truly trying to kill Bucky and I we’d be double dead. Maybe I was scared that if he got back up, we wouldn’t stand a chance of getting away and instead took the risk that I might kill him. I don’t know. I went too far, I know that. I regret what happened in Siberia and I’m trying to make it better but I can’t do that yet because Tony doesn’t really trust me again yet. I think everything that happened in Siberia was me being afraid.”

Peter sighed. Yes, Steve made some valid points, but there’s always a possibility that he wasn’t telling the truth about the reason. “I’m not going to forgive you, not until after Mr Stark forgives you, but I am willing to talk a little more often, if only for Mr Bucky.” Steve nodded at Peter’s words and sighed in relief.

“That’s fair. Now that this is settled, I guess I'll leave you be and let you eat your..." Steve's eyes zeroed in on the bag in Peter's hand and his eyes narrowed "Doritos." Peter pulled out an actual unbroken Dorito and turned to face Steve. He held it up, looked at it and before he went to eat it, he noticed that Steve had a suspiciously Dorito-like shoulder to waist ratio so he got off the bench, took a few steps away from Steve and turned to hold the Dorito to compare it to Steve's torso. Realising that his guess about the perfect Dorito shoulder waist ratio was, in fact, accurate, Peter spluttered in order to hold back his laughter. "Don't." Steve warned, staring at the Dorito as if it had committed a sin.

"I have a proposition for you, Mr Rogers. I won't tell anyone that you have the shoulder-waist ratio of a Dorito, but only if you don't tell anyone, especially not Mr Stark, that I was up at 3am eating Doritos." Peter bargained and Steve didn’t even pause before agreeing, holding his hand out. Peter ate the Dorito that he had been holding then took the few steps forward so he was in front of Steve and the two shook on it.

“Please, don’t call me Mr Rogers.”

“Okay Mr Steve Captain America sir.”

“Please, just call me Steve.”

“No can do Mr Steve Captain America sir.”

“Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw.”

Peter gasped as if he just heard something controversial, “You said the fuck word! Language, Mr America sir!” Peter spluttered a little as he said that, still trying not to laugh at the previous statement.

“I let it slip out once - once! - and everyone starts patronising me!” Steve complained loudly, then a lot quieter, “Why has god forsaken me like this?” Upon hearing that, Peter couldn’t stop himself as he burst into a fit of laughter, slowly falling to the floor as it sunk in that he had very clearly heard Steve Rogers use a phrase claimed by millennials and gen z kids. When Peter had recovered to the point where he could breathe properly and tears no longer blurred his vision, he noticed that Steve looked oddly smug at how he had made him laugh and couldn’t stop himself from rolling his eyes.

“Come on now Peter, you should go to sleep, don’t you have school tomorrow?” Peter groaned and grumbled a mess of sounds that certainly weren’t words in response. He glanced between the floor in front of him and the Doritos, then to the stairs and groaned again. "Fuck the education system, it's corrupt." He grumbled but stood up and made his way back to the stairs, turned to wave at Steve and walked back up to the penthouse bedrooms, Doritos in hand. He could go to sleep, but he feels that after the night he's had, he deserves the freedom to watch a vine compilation, even if that means he'll be tired at school.

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus:
> 
> "Peter. You're telling me that you actually had a decent conversation with Captain America and you didn't punch him again and instead made fun of him? For swearing?" Ned's disbelief was evident in the words he said. Peter nodded vigorously, then frowned slightly.
> 
> "Hold the fuck up I forgot to apologise to Mr Steve Captain America sir for punching him." Ned choked on his laughter at the name, "But yes, we agreed to not tell on each other and you need to promise me not to tell anyone this but Steve has the shoulder-waist ratio of a Dorito." Ned blinked for a few moments as he thought, trying to imagine a Dorito in comparison to the torso of Captain America and burst into laughter when the image came to mind.
> 
> "You, my friend, are a legend."
> 
> "I know, you don't have to remind me."
> 
> "But I do, you have a horrible self esteem at the best of times and don't believe me ninety percent of the time."
> 
> "Don't remind me." Peter grumbled.
> 
> Ned couldn't stop the smile that formed at his friend's antics. "You need to introduce me to everyone."
> 
> "Oh don't worry, I will. Don't forget you're coming over next week."
> 
> "Holy shit I am, aren't I." Peter raised an eyebrow and nodded, trying to hold a serious air, but couldn't stop himself from laughing - not giggling - as he remembered what was going to happen.
> 
> "Peter stop giggling."
> 
> "I don't giggle." Peter protested, but at the disbelieving look on Ned's face, took the hint and huffed because he knew he had lost the argument and no matter how much he could try to deny it, he definitely giggled.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> I'm a day late, I know, I went to see Captain Marvel last night and forgot to upload this so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯  
> Carol Danvers is a queen holy fuck I love my lesbian goddess


End file.
